Chapter 3

After her cheeks got tired from playing the harmonica, Ye Qingshui went home to take a bath and wash her hair.

People in the countryside weren’t too particular about hygiene. Unlike city dwellers who bathed daily, Ye Qingshui’s family lacked strong laborers to chop enough firewood, so in the winter, she could go days without bathing.

While bathing, Ye Qingshui scrubbed herself hard, peeling off a layer of skin before feeling satisfied.

After finishing her bath, she finally had time to look in the mirror. The mercury mirror clearly reflected her 17-year-old face—thin and lacking much flesh. Her skin had been sunburned during the summer, but her eyes were particularly bright. Her forehead was covered with thick, heavy bangs, a style popular in rural areas at the time. This was also the year she first met Xie Tingyu.

She pushed her bangs up, revealing her forehead, finally seeing a more familiar version of herself.

Ye Qingshui said, “I’m going to sleep.”

Xie Tingyu, who was reading a book, quickly took out his bedding and efficiently set up his spot on the floor. As a young man full of vigor, he understood himself well—there was no way he was sharing a bed with her.

He had noticed the changes in Ye Qingshui: she bathed before bed, even washed her hair, and wore clean clothes. The little girl was starting to care about hygiene.

For someone like Xie Tingyu, who was a bit of a clean freak, this was a welcome change—it even made his smile a little more genuine.

“Hmm.”

Not only that, but he also keenly noticed that her exposed skin was pinkish, clearly from excessive scrubbing. Her neck had patches of red and white… She had even spent quite some time looking at herself in the mirror.

Xie Tingyu frowned.

He couldn’t quite tell whether Ye Qingshui’s changes were good or bad—had she truly given up on him, or was she being cunning, taking a step back to advance later?

Proud of his ability to think a step ahead of other men, Xie Tingyu found himself unable to reach a conclusion this time.

But as soon as he blew out the oil lamp, sleepiness took over, and he quickly put the matter aside.

The next morning, Ye Qingshui woke up early.

She got up and started making breakfast. She picked plump eggplants, coated them in flour, and made vegetarian buns mixed with cabbage.

The flour belonged to Xie Tingyu, and she wasn’t quite used to using it. While preparing breakfast, she pondered over her livelihood.

The 1970s weren’t just a historical backdrop—Ye Qingshui’s memories of this era were filled with hardship, enough to squeeze out bitter tears.

Food tickets, cloth tickets, industrial vouchers—she had none of them.

It’s easy to go from frugality to luxury, but the reverse is difficult.

There were still some leftover pork fat from yesterday, which she rendered into fragrant lard. The eggplant, fried in lard, turned sweet and flavorful, oozing with juice. Since she was using Xie Tingyu’s flour, she felt a little guilty and decided to accommodate his taste by making vegetarian dumplings.

Ye Qingshui scooped out the last bit of lard she had saved from yesterday, using up every drop.

The aroma of steamed buns and dumplings wafting from the kitchen woke up Mother Ye.

Ye Qingshui said, “Mother, go brush your teeth before eating.”

Brushing teeth was something only educated people did—peasants who spent their lives toiling in the fields never bothered with it. To brush your teeth meant adopting the habits of city folks, implying that you expected to eat commodity grains instead of farm produce.

Mother Ye hesitated.

Ye Qingshui handed her a freshly broken willow twig. “Brother Yu is a particular person. We can’t be unkempt around him. Didn’t you always respect educated people?”

Mother Ye had once been part of a traveling opera troupe and had taken great care of her teeth. But after marrying Father Ye and becoming a farmer’s wife, she abandoned that habit.

She stroked the willow twig lovingly and said, “Now that my Shuiya has married, she’ll be a refined person. I’ll follow your lead and be refined too.”

Such a simple, ordinary sentence nearly brought Ye Qingshui to tears.

In truth, her family had been more against this marriage than supportive. Only her mother had stood by her unconditionally. No matter what Ye Qingshui wanted to do, her mother would always be there for her. When others scolded her, her mother—despite not being good with words—would argue back with a flushed neck. When she got divorced, her mother comforted her, saying, “Shui’er, don’t worry. I can work and support you on my own.”

And in the end, when she was on the verge of death, her mother wept and said, “Shui’er, there will be no one to be with you in the future. I can’t rest in peace.”

A second chance at life was something everyone longed for, yet it had fallen into her hands. Ye Qingshui couldn’t understand why. She had already achieved the life she wanted—the things people struggled for, she had already attained. She had turned her passion into a successful career, had a bank account filled with savings, a charitable foundation named after her, and the respect she deserved.

She had no regrets. The idea of reliving the hardships of decades past wasn’t appealing to her in the slightest.

But in the early morning, hearing her mother’s gentle murmuring, something struck deep in her heart—a sour ache.

It turned out that she still had another way to make life better for her loved ones.

Mother Ye happily went to brush her teeth. When she sat at the table and saw the plump, steaming buns, she was practically drooling.

She said, “Shui’er, since when did your cooking get so good?”

Grandma Ye, however, frowned and said, “With that much oil and good ingredients, of course it tastes good.” Then, she twisted Ye Qingshui’s ear and scolded her:

“You’ve barely had a few meals and you’re already using up all the grain! Even mice save food for the next day!”

“It was me who asked Shuiya to make them. Hmm… smells amazing.” At some point, Xie Tingyu had woken up. He grinned, showing his teeth to both Grandma Ye and mother, looking completely satisfied. That expression made the old woman swallow back her words of reproach.

Ye Qingshui felt a little embarrassed and quickly added, “That’s right, last night Brother Yu said he wanted to eat buns, so I got up early to make them. Grandma, eat them while they’re hot—the buns are the softest right now!”

She felt ashamed for using Xie Tingyu’s flour without permission, but she knew he enjoyed the food. When she earned some money, she would make sure to repay him double.

Now that they had spoken openly, had he finally let go of his prejudices against her?

Ye Qingshui called out, “Let’s eat.”

When Xie Tingyu sat down after washing up, his gaze flickered at the steaming dumplings in front of him, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

As the morning light cast its golden glow over the lush green fields, a large group of commune members had already begun working.

This was when Ye Qingshui truly began experiencing the rejection and disdain that came with being the subject of gossip forty years ago. Aside from a slight sense of novelty, she wasn’t too affected—she had already been through all these emotions before. This time, she felt more like an outsider, just observing.

The village women had particularly sharp tongues. Ever since that incident, the whispering had never stopped.

“That Ye girl looks so scrawny, but when it comes to seducing men, she sure knows what she’s doing. I heard that she was cuddling with Xie the educated youth in the middle of the night. If no one had caught them, who knows what would’ve happened…”

“Well, you can’t call her shameless anymore—she’s officially ‘Madam Xie’ now. We might even have to suck up to her in the future.”

Hearing this while working nearby, the educated youths were indignant.

Whether male or female, every one of them had a high opinion of Xie Tingyu. He was clean and well-mannered, spoke logically and eloquently, was intelligent and cultured, and often helped them solve their problems.

But ever since he got married, their usual “broadcast music” had disappeared. It felt like the liveliest presence among them was suddenly gone—a real pity.

If even the male educated youths felt this way, one could only imagine how much more deeply the female educated youths were hurt and resentful.

Sun Lingyu said, “Comrade Xie from our educated youth station is upright and pure, his character and spirit molded by Chairman M’s teachings. He is absolutely a man of integrity and progressive thinking. You are not allowed to insult him like this!”

Xie Tingyu had been sent elsewhere for work and was not present. If he had been there to hear someone defending him so fiercely, he might have been a little moved.

“That’s right, that’s right. They’re already married, so what’s the point of digging up old stories? Making such a big deal out of this—what if it affects our productivity?” A male educated youth couldn’t help but agree, while also tugging at his companion’s sleeve, signaling for someone to fetch Xie Tingyu. His wife was being slandered—he needed to come and defend her himself.

Sun Lingyu put down her hoe and scolded each person who had insulted Xie Tingyu, one by one. Before Ye Qingshui even had the chance to jump into the fight, the battle was already over.

Ye Qingshui, who had just rolled up her sleeves and prepared herself for a heated argument, felt a little disappointed.

After a while, when they took a break from work, she was chatting and laughing with the female educated youths who had also come from the capital.

Right in front of Ye Qingshui, Sun Lingyu joked, “You’re registered as a rural resident, while Brother Xie is a city-dweller who eats commercial grains].”

“His family probably won’t help you transfer your grain and oil ration status… You haven’t even washed the mud off your feet, yet you dare to dream of flying into the city like a golden phoenix. Hah!”

“Do you all remember when Ye Qingshui mistook toothpaste for sugar and ate it? I even heard that she was once so hungry she fought with pigs for food!”

The educated youths burst into laughter, their voices crisp like silver bells.

Ye Qingshui’s voice was even clearer as she grabbed onto one point and smiled, “Yes, I’m a rural resident, but I’m proud to be a farmer. The rice you city people eat every day—every single grain of it is soaked in the sweat of rural workers. The clothes you wear? The raw materials come from the jute and cotton grown in the countryside, and every thread is woven with the blood and sweat of farmers. Even the paper you use is made from trees grown by farmers, and the pork you eat was raised with our hands, through toil and hardship.

We support ourselves—and we also feed you city people.”

Her voice turned cold. “Even the great leader praises farmers, saying that the working class and the peasantry are the true masters of this country. Where do you get the audacity to speak such treasonous words? Your way of thinking is filled with decadent capitalist ideas—looks like you need some serious re-education. Labor alone doesn’t seem to be enough to reform you…”

If labor couldn’t reform someone, then what could?

Sun Lingyu’s face turned pale. She had never expected this usually soft and meek woman to speak with such force and intelligence.

Unwilling to back down, she snapped, “But you have no sense of propriety! You acted like that before marriage—”

Just then, Xie Tingyu, who had been called over, arrived in time to hear Sun Lingyu’s accusation. He frowned.

He looked at Ye Qingshui, who was filled with indignation, and gently tugged at the back of her shirt. When she turned around, she saw his slightly sweaty face. The dazzling sunlight bathed his white shirt, making him look tall and strong.

Xie Tingyu said, “There are some things I don’t like to talk about much—saying too much only hurts relationships.”

With a cold expression, he reprimanded Sun Lingyu, “Before marriage, Comrade Ye and I maintained a completely clean and normal relationship. And as for my personal marriage matters, I don’t need anyone else worrying about them.”

He paused, his face darkening. “Whoever just spoke ill of Ye Qingshui—step forward now.”

Even though Ye Qingshui wasn’t overly concerned about the gossip, her face still grew warm. She turned to Xie Tingyu and asked, “What are you planning to do?”

The way he spoke… Why did it sound like he was ready to fight someone?

She had never seen Xie Tingyu have such an overwhelming sense of masculine dominance before.

His expression remained calm, serious, and silent.

Sansukini: The first week chapters are done. Thanks so much for reading. See you again next Saturday.

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